Speech in Japanese and Vietnamese: Similarities and Differences

The basic speaking of Japanese I believe is easy, however I know that tone will soon play an important part in new words I will come across. The example of Hōyō 抱擁 (I'm hoping it means "Hugs" I'm using Google translate to help me). At first I spoke it too short, until I was correct and remember that the lines mean an extended sound. Once I remembered that I was able to connect that if I saw it anywhere else in translations. It is still early though to get that deep. I first must remember the double lines, and the small circle that represents a softer extended sound vs a short bouncing sound. This part is still new to me.

Another issue that was brought to my attention is the force of which I speak. As with Vietnamese, there is too much power behind each word, and consequently I always find there is a slight shortness of breath. The use of the jaw is not need as much. The lips, tongue and cheeks play a huge role in expressing the sound properly.

Admittedly Vietnamese gave my tongue a workout with "Ng", "R", "Tr" and "Ch". On the accents "Ng~a", "Na.ng" [ unikey is not working in Blogger] also. In Japanese my issue seems to be when coming across words with a combination I'm not used to speaking. Okyakusama お客様, Ostuskaresama お疲れ様, Doitashimashite どういたしまして as examples. I can now say these words better than I started, but my tongue seems to battle a lot with my teeth. Shaping the sound with the lips is foreign to me, and is also important to Vietnamese.

A I U E O Tsu = The forming the sound with the lips helps the sound become clearer. Tsu requires the tongue to articulate a very small U shape at the tip against the back of the front two teeth, or in my case, the top ridge just above the base root of the teeth.

" O O' O^ U "  = in Vietnamese also require the shaping with the lips

"Ng U' R " = Require some serious tongue action. There is a youtube video I will share that was shared by a language partner. This video was the best way to help me understand the "Ng" sound. How to pronounce Initial Ng Stuart Jay Raj . "R" is a little easier if you know how to roll your tongue. The sound "R" makes is at the very start of the roll "Ruh". " U' " I have not really figured out yet on it's own. In a word it's simple, but it's best to have the sound imprinted in your head to squash any mispronunciations early on.

Now having written that mouthful, here is what I have learned basically. I started learning Vietnamese first and hungrily absorb vocabulary, sound, writing, and basic sentence structure pretty easily, but speaking had been difficult. That is until I started to listen to my Japanese buddy. I realized that if they wanted to, they could very well learn Vietnamese speech wise. Japanese has the same lack of ending sound, The " R " would be easy to master in Vietnamese, and the foundation of "N" can easily give birth to "Ng". Sentence structure would be a different matter, but just speech I believe it can be possible. And because I realized this in my friend, I realized right at that moment that I had some foundation of my own to blend Vietnamese in Japanese and back. The key basics in both languages, translate well for each other. Flexibility of the mouth, placing the tongue, and relaxing the jaw.

ん   |   Ng